Lie on floor & give your body to God

1. We must actually release our body to God. That is what Paul means when he tells us “to present our body to God as a living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1, PAR). It needs to be a definite action, renewed as appropriate, perhaps on a yearly basis. You will not drift into this position before God, and you will not, without decisive action, stay there.

Perhaps you could do it like this. Decide to give your body to God on the basis of understanding how important it is and that scriptural teaching requires it. Know, therefore, that it is a good and indispensable thing to do. Then take a day in silent and solitary retreat. Quiet your soul and your body, and let them get clear of the fog of your daily burdens and preoccupations. Meditatively pray some central Scriptures before the Lord, especially those dealing directly with the body, already cited and emphasized in this chapter.

I recommend that you then lie on the floor, face down or face up, and explicitly and formally surrender your body to God. Then take time to go over the main parts of your body and do the same for each one. What you want to do is to ask God to take charge of your body and each part, to fill it with his life and use it for his purposes. Accentuate the positive; don’t just think of not sinning with your body. You will find this following naturally from active consecration of it to God’s power and his purpose. Remember, a sacrifice is something to be taken up in God.

You have taken your hands off of “outcomes” with respect to it, and you care for it only as it serves God’s purposes in your life and the lives of others. You don’t worry about what will happen to it—sickness, repulsiveness, aging, death—for you have placed God in charge of all that, and any issues that arise in this area you freely take up with him in prayer.

Closely allied with the above is that you do not misuse your body. This means primarily two things: First, you do not use it as a source of sensual gratification, and you do not use it to dominate or manipulate others.

Another example on this point has to do with intimidation by means of our body. There are many aspects of this, up to and including brute force. The most common forms of it are social: for example, “power dressing,” sarcasm, and “knowing” looks and remarks. Having given up our body to God, we do not then use it or its parts in these ways.

The positive counterpart of the remarks just made is that the body is to be properly honored and cared for. The first step in this direction follows from what has already been said. That is, the body is to be regarded as holy, because it is owned and inhabited by God.

But the saints who have separated their bodies to God have resources not at the disposal of the ordinary person running on fumes and promises, where so many of us find ourselves today. We have to learn how to get where those resources are and to take our bodies into the rest of God.

Confusion is the enemy of spiritual orientation. Rest, properly taken, gives clarity to the mind. Weariness, by contrast, can make us seek gratification and energy from food or drugs, or from various illicit relationships, or from egoistic postures that are, in Paul’s words, “upon the earth.” They pull us away from reliance upon God and from living in his power. pp. 172-175 SOURCE